Five Men Jailed For Cambridgeshire Cash Machine Raids

Five men, including two from Cambridgeshire have been jailed for a total of 22 years for their involvement in a series of ATM ram raids across the region in 2012.

Joseph Upton, John Smith, Albert Smith, Christopher Smith and Alfred Stanley carried out smash and grab raids at 12 banks and businesses and six burglaries during a nine-month crime spree.

They used JCB vehicles to smash into businesses before ripping out cash machines, used cutting equipment to help themselves to more cash and escaped in vehicles they had plundered in burglaries across the Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Lincolnshire.

In total, they got away with £301,560 from cash machines and stole cars and jewellery worth more than £100,000.

They were caught following a lengthy investigation launched in August 2012 by the Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU).

Upton, 43, of Murrow Lane, Parsons Drove, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire, John Smith, 39, of Small Lode, in Upwell, Cambridgeshire; Albert Smith, 38, of Common Road, in Potton, Bedfordshire; Alfred Stanley, 37, of Sandon Close, in Sandy, Bedfordshire, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy burgle and conspiracy to steal motorvehicles between January and October 2012 at Cambridge Crown Court on Friday (February 27).

John Christopher Smith, 23, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to burgle.

They were sentenced as follows at Cambridge Crown Court on Tuesday: Joseph Upton jailed for five years; John Leonard Smith four years and nine months; Alfred Stanley Smith sentenced to four years; Albert Smith four years and nine months; John Christopher Smith jailed for three-and-a-half years.